Raising Tyrants?

“You have no idea what nice things I had planned for the rest of the afternoon, but you are ruining any chance of seeing it now,” I told my wailing puddle of a son at Kohl’s department store.

When school starts this year, I will be an empty nester, at least from 8:30-2:30. I had planned a day of taking each child out by themselves with me, to spend a little one on one time while we still can. I enjoy surprising my kids with little things, whether it is a trip to Dairy Queen or a chance to pick out something special while school shopping alone with mom.

However, something special does not include a Wii game.

So there we were: me, with a flagging sense of enthusiasm and my son, having a complete and total meltdown because I wouldn’t change my mind about the video game.  All the whining, pleading, and bargaining this eight year old keeps in his arsenal would not cause me to add a Wii game to the school supply necessities. Instead, I was deciding if I was just going to drop his behind back home and forget about the rest of the day. I felt sad for my son, because he really didn’t know what he was risking losing with his tantrum at the store.

In that moment, I had a glimpse of how God must feel.

We only see what we see. We have no idea the wonderful future God has planned for us, the gifts and opportunities He intends to lavish upon us. We just know that we don’t have what we want RIGHT NOW  and do our best to pray Him into submitting to our plans, using the term pray loosely.  Just because it ends with “In Jesus Name” doesn’t mean we aren’t begging and whining . . .

I just have to wonder if God is up there shaking His head sometimes, knowing what the rest of the plans for the afternoon were supposed to be, but holding back until our tantrum and sense of entitlement has passed. I also wonder if I miss seeing what He has for me because I am still busy telling Him what I really want.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to go through life with no expectations at all, just so I could be grateful for everything that comes my way.

I know that would have made my son’s afternoon a little smoother.